Let's Do Federal Policy Right This Time

By George R. Kaplan

The clock has run out on the "populist crusade'' of George Bush and Lamar Alexander to "reinvent America's schools.'' The America 2000 litany with its "four big trains moving simultaneously down four parallel tracks'' and its gimmicky "A-Plus for Breaking the Mold Schools'' has worn out its welcome while demeaning our public schools and the people who serve them.

But relief at their departure should be short-lived. For brief though it was, the Alexander regime offers a smorgasbord of timely cautions on how not to help the schools.

Alongside the portrait of Lamar Alexander in the corridor leading to the Secretary of Education's office at 400 Maryland Avenue, S.W., Washington, D.C. 20202 there should hang a plaque spotlighting these Ten Misguided Commandments for making a mockery of school reform and transforming a responsible federal presence into an...